80 
MARSH HAWK. 
long and slender ; nostril large, triangular, this, and the base of the 
bill, thickly covered with strong curving hairs, that rise from the 
space between the eye and bill, arching over the base of the bill and 
cere — this is a particular characteristic ; bill blue, black at the end ; 
eye dark hazel ; cartilage overhanging the eye, and also the eyelid, 
bluish green ; spot under the eye, and line from the front over it, 
brownish white ; head above, and back, dai'k glossy chocolate brown, 
the former slightly seamed with bright ferruginous ; scapulars spotted 
with the same under the surface ; lesser coverts, and band of the wing, 
here and there edged with the same ; greater coverts and primaries 
tipped with whitish ; quills deep brown at the extreme half, some of the 
outer ones hoary on the exterior edge ; all the primaries yellowish white 
on the inner vanes and upper half, also barred on the inner vanes 
with black ; tail long, extending three inches beyond the wings, rounded 
at the end, and of a pale sorrel color, crossed by four broad bars of 
very dark brown, the two middle feathers excepted, which are barred 
with deep and lighter shades of chocolate brown ; chin pale ferruginous ; 
round the neck a collar of bright rust color ; breast, belly and vent, 
pale rust, shafted with brown ; femorals long, tapering, and of the 
same pale rust tint ; legs feathered near an inch below the knee. This 
was a female. The male differs chiefly in being rather lighter, and 
somewhat less. 
This IlaAvk is particularly serviceable to tlie rice fields of the southern 
states, by the havoc it makes among the clouds of Rice Buntings, that 
spread such devastation among that grain, in its early stage. As it 
sails low and sAviftly, over the surface of the field, it keeps the flocks in 
perpetual fluctuation, and greatly interrupts their depredations. The 
planters consider one Marsh Havrk to be equal to several negroes, for 
alarming the Rice-birds. Formerly the INIarsh Hawk used to be numer- 
ous along the Schuylkill and Delaware, during the time the seeds of the 
Zizania were ripening, and the Reed-birds abundant ; but they have of 
late yeai*s become less numerous here. 
Pennant considers the " strong, thick, and short legs'" of this species 
as specific distinctions from the Ring-tailed Hawk ; the legs, however, 
are long and- slender ; and a Marsh Hawk such as he has described, with 
strong, thick and short legs, is nowhere to be found in the United States. 
Note. — Montagu, in the " Supplement to the Ornithological Diction- 
ary," an excellent work, positively asserts, that the F. cyaneus, and the 
F. ■pygargus, are the same species. This opinion the same writer had 
given in a paper, published in the ninth volume of the Linnean Trans- 
actions. If this be the fact, the name of jj^/^^far^ws must be retained for 
the species, it being that which was given to it by Linnaeus, in the tenth 
edition of the Systema Katuroe, published in_the year 1758. — G. Ord. 
